Beijing Financial Street Forum highlights financial opening-up

The Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum 2026 opened in Beijing on Monday, bringing together Chinese and international financial experts and senior officials to discuss developments in China's financial sector and global financial trends.

The four-day event, running through Thursday, is being held in the Financial Street area of Beijing's Xicheng district, one of the country's major financial hubs.

Covering less than 2.6 square kilometers, the area is home to more than 1,900 financial institutions and 220,000 financial professionals. Financial assets managed by institutions based there exceed 150 trillion yuan ($22.4 trillion), accounting for about one-third of China's total, according to the forum's organizing committee.

Beijing has also stepped up efforts to open its financial sector to foreign investment and facilitate cross-border capital flows.

In 2025, the Beijing bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration supported HSBC Insurance Brokerage Co in completing six capital increases, raising its registered capital from 10 million yuan to 1.978 billion yuan, Beijing Daily reported.

The company subsequently became China's insurance intermediary with the largest paid-in capital, according to the report.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange has supported cross-border cash-pooling services for more than 100 multinational companies in Beijing, with cumulative transactions exceeding $600 billion, the newspaper reported.

The city has also processed more than $330 billion in transactions under a pilot program designed to facilitate cross-border trade, while foreign currency exchange services have been extended to major cultural and tourist destinations.